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MONTREAL - On May 17, the Liberal government invoked Bill 78 to ensure students could attend classes. The special law promised harsh fines for protesters or associations found guilty of obstruction.

University students hoping to return to school this week discovered the efficacy of the special law depends on the institution they’re attending. At the Université de Montréal, which has been calling in the police to expel disruptive protesters “for the security of its staff and students,” administrators said, five classes out of a total of about 450 were cancelled on Monday and Tuesday.

At UQAM, which has not called in the police in fear of inflaming a volatile situation “and risking the security of its students and employees,” more than a hundred courses have been cancelled over the last two days, disrupted by noisy protesters or called off because students no longer show up.

Students who fear their semester will be cancelled are growing increasingly frustrated. Some wish the police would come in.

“We feel like we’re being taken advantage of,” said Pierre Dori, a third-year political science student at UQAM, who transferred from the Université de Montréal last semester to be closer to his apartment. A foreign student from Belgium, he’s paying $7,500 a term.

“We voted against this boycott, we paid our tuition, but each time there is a new obstacle put in our place, a new vote, another blockage,” he said. “Some of the protesters, say ‘Who cares, we’re giving up this semester.’ I saved five years for this. I’ll lose six months. This is my life.”

At the Université de Montréal, police waiting nearby were called onto the campus and into buildings Monday and Tuesday, apprehending a total of 31 protesters. Nineteen were arrested in connection with Bill 78, then released. Police will forward their reports to Quebec’s prosecutor office, which will decide if there are grounds to lay charges. On Tuesday, 11 protesters were detained by police just before 9 a.m. following “a physical confrontation” involving students and Université de Montréal security guards inside a classroom, Commander Ian Lafrenière said. Six are expected to face Criminal Code charges of assault and assault on a police officer. The other five were released and have not been charged.

Lafrenière said police officers intervened at the request of individuals who rushed out of the building.

University spokesperson Mathieu Filion said it was the sole disruption Tuesday of which the school administration is aware. A total of 247 classes were scheduled Tuesday as part of a push to finish the winter-spring semester, interrupted by a student boycott that began in February.

At UQAM, 60 classes out 180 in the departments of political science, social sciences and arts that voted to extend their boycott were cancelled Monday morning after noisy protesters made it impossible to teach. On Tuesday morning, 70 courses out of 100 were cancelled, even though the number of protesters roaming the halls had diminished to about 40. Their work had already been done, however: 50 of the classes were cancelled because no one showed up. Administrators did not say how many afternoon classes had to be called off.

The student council for the social sciences department, where roughly 700 students voted 60 per cent last week in favour of boycotting, said they are merely carrying out the wishes voted on by their members. Student council member Benjamin Gingras said their members don’t consider Bill 78 a valid law, and are willing to risk fines topping $125,000 for their student association.

Students in the 600-member political science department noted that after most members voted against the boycott last week, a second vote was scheduled unbeknownst to most members. Only 41 people attended, and the majority voted to continue the boycott.

UQAM spokesperson Jenny Desrochers said the fear is that bringing police in could exacerbate an already volatile situation and endanger the safety of students and employees. It’s up to the students, she said, to vote for what they want. Students in the social sciences and political science department have petitioned to hold new votes on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.

At the Université de Montréal, 2,000 students are in departments that voted to strike out of a total student body of 45,000, spokesman Filion noted. The administration there called police Monday because it was concerned for the security of its students, “and because the protesters represented such a small minority.”

Asked whether Bill 78 could be considered a failure given UQAM’s experience, the press attaché for Education Minister Michelle Courchesne passed the question on to the department of public security.

“Bill 78 was designed to give universities and police the supplementary tools necessary to permit access to classes,” said Mathieu St. Pierre, press attaché for Security Minister Robert Dutil. “It is up to them to use them or not.”

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